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the dream of dawn

Long Winter Nights. Part 1

It appears that this winter is not going to relinquish even a single day and we are to dwell in snow and ice well into March. Nothing is getting crossed-off the list of tasks that Must Be Done before re-launching the boat. But of course, there is an endless supply of smaller tasks that can be addressed while waiting for the weather to clear.
I just got in from winching the FedEx truck out of the ditch. Coincidentally, it was bringing me an electronic ignition kit to install in the boat. Maybe this weekend...

Each evening, I've been pushing back the furniture in the living room um... I mean "sail loft," and spreading out one sail to inspect carefully on both sides.

The main thing found was some spreader-tip damage to the UV cover of the genoa - I spotted it earlier, but looks like it was worse than I thought, or it escalated quickly.

So I glued a patch over it. Maybe should have stitched it. Maybe I will if winter drags on another couple of weeks. Otherwise, we'll find out how well "Tear Mender" really works. Also, I have a pair of mittens for the spreader tips, after the new shrouds are attached.
I stitched up some reefing strops for the mainsail, according to the SailRite video. I've been looking for an excuse to use the Speedy-Stitcher anyway. There was some learning curve to this. Anyway, we'll try these for a season and see how well they work.

And there are quite a few new halyards, bridles, & etc. that need splicing. Well, the new ones have so far been more successful than trying to put eyes into old ropes. I won't admit how many times I had to cut off the end and start over. If, in fact, that was something that happened.
Hah. Well I somehow got more than three photos uploaded before the editor choked. So maybe I'll just save that one for the next post.

Comments

I wonder whether raising the "tack" a few inches will do something weird to the sail shape? Not that it's particularly stellar at this point. Also, I'm a little unsure about the SailRite design. It seems like all the force is depending on the stitches, where it would be better to double the strap over again, so that the stitches only need to keep it from unwrapping. But that made an awfully thick stack. If it comes apart, I'll re-do it that way, perhaps with flat strap instead of tubular.
But I've got an organizer plate to slip under the mast step before re-launch. Might also play around with single-line reefing at some point.